Thunder i840 S2520
21
2.10 Connecting IDE and Floppy Drives
A variety of IDE and ATAPI-compliant devices can be
installed on this motherboard, such as hard disk drives
(HDDs) and CD-ROMs.
Please keep in mind that on this motherboard, the pri-
mary IDE connector is
BLACK
, and the secondary IDE
connector is
WHITE
.
Figure 2.4
(see
right
) shows the
IDE cable properly connected to the motherboard. Con-
sult the documentation that came with your device, or
contact the device’s manufacturer for details on its instal-
lation. Also see
Figure 2.5
(see picture to the
right
) for
an example of an HDD with the IDE cable installed. ATA-
66 IDE HDDs require a special 80-wire, 40-pin IDE cable
which has additional grounding wires, and may or may
not have a notch near the blue connector. The cable is
included in the Thunder i840 motherboard package. The
ATA-66 cable is also upwards compatible with ATA-100
devices, and backwards compatible with ATA-33 and
Legacy IDE HDDs.
Figure 2.4
Blue end of ATA-66 cable
Some symptoms of incorrectly installed HDDs are...
May be a Master/Slave configuration problem, bad
IDE cable, or BIOS mis-configuration. Consult the
HDD documentation or contact your HDD vendor.
May be a bad cable or lack of power going to the
drive. Check the cables for damage and bad con-
nections.
Usually means the cable has been installed back-
wards.
Bad IDE cable or defective drives/motherboard. Try
another HDD, or contact your HDD vendor.
Check power cables and cabling. May be a bad
power supply or IDE drive problem.
HDD lights are constantly on
HDDs are not auto-detected
No video or beeps during bootup
HDD does not power on
Hard Disk Drive Fail message at bootup
NOTE
The
BLUE
end of the ATA-66 cable must connect to the motherboard. The black con-
nector on the ATA-66 cable is for the master HDD, and the grey connector is for the
slave HDD. See Figure 2.4 for an example of cable installation on the motherboard.
Only Tyan-approved cables are recommended for this motherboard. If you are using
an existing configuration with older cables, your system might not function properly.
Use only Tyan-approved cables (i.e. the ones that were included with your mother-
board).
Figure 2.5
Colored stripe
indicates Pin 1
Power
INS
T
ALL
